Letter

We read with concern the comments you made today about climate change. According to press accounts, you expressed skepticism that humans are causing climate change and said: "For everybody who thinks it's warming, I can find someone who thinks it isn't."[1]

We are writing to advise you that your statements are inconsistent with the overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, is caused primarily by humans, and will have serious impacts if unchecked.

As the Minority Leader of the Senate, you have a position of tremendous importance and influence on the nation's environmental and energy policies. For that reason, we believe it is crucial that you are fully informed of the latest state of the science of climate change. We respectfully request that you allow us to assist you in arranging a briefing with the nation's preeminent climate scientists so that you can be fully informed of the threat posed by climate change.

We are also enclosing a report released last month by the National Academy of Sciences and the British Royal Academy, the most distinguished scientific bodies in the United States and United Kingdom. This report calls climate change "one of the defining issues of our time" and explains why "[i]t is now more certain than ever, based on many lines of evidence, that humans are changing the Earth's climate."